If no-one ever copied anyone else, fire would have died along with the first humans to create it. Social creatures that we are, human beings copy, modify and improve what has gone before in order to succeed; it’s just a part of life.

But when it comes to artistic creation, borrowing ideas from another person’s work isn’t usually looked on quite so favourably.

In September this year, a group of students from a Tokyo university received the first prize in the Shinjuku Creators Festa 2012 for a short film that shares more than a passing resemblance toPixels, a video created by French film creator Patrick Jean in 2010.

Whether intentional or not, the similarities between the two creations are startling, land have led to an online debate, with many calling the young team’s work “a simple rip-off”…